Hi all, I have just been introduced to the world of 3D printing. I have been looking through all your designs and I am super excited to get started. My questions is what is the best application for a novice to start on? I've seen Solidworks mentioned a lot and also seen the free app from Shapeways called blender. I'm pretty good using apps and have used Vectorworks in the past for interior design. (just offering a level of my competence - or lack off! )

If you're going to be making precisely measured parts I would suggest Sketchup, and I'd then also suggest investigating some various add-ins which add more functionality. Sketchup is suited more towards architectural modeling by default, but there are various free add-ins/ruby scripts which give capabilities such as boolean operations and easy fillets, which make solid modeling easier.

I actually use SolidWorks mostly, but have been interested in checking out this new program from Cubify which looks like it works very similarly and is intended to be used for 3D printing design.

The main practical differences related to modeling for 3D printing that I've seen between free programs like Sketchup and expensive professional programs like SolidWorks is sometimes you have to go through more steps in the free program to get the same ends.

I don't need Tinkercad's community/share features, but it sure was easy to learn, pretty and browser based.

-D

Tinkercad will be easier to use, while Sketchup will give you far more options for advanced designing.

If Tinkercad looks like it can do what you need, by all means use it as you'll be on your way to printing much faster. Look around their gallery to see what people have done with it, and get a feel for what it can do.

I'd dare recommend ViaCAD 2D/3D to anyone who wants to try "real CAD" real cheap (you can get them on eBay for around $50). It does actual solid modeling, so no surface logic problems or mesh messes and it's relatively easy to get started with.